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Tax Dollars are Subsidizing NFL National Anthem Protests

By KrisAnne Hall, JD

The right to protest and the right to freedom of expression are fundamental to any free people. Disagreeing with the protest content doesn’t annul the protester’s right. But should protests be subsidized by American tax dollars? Does a multi-billion dollar entertainment industry need to be subsidized by American tax dollars?

As the debate over “Trump v. NFL” rages, how many Americans know how much funding their state and local governments provide to the NFL, so that a family can spend several hundred dollars for the privilege of watching this tax subsidized event?

Taxpayers at the state and municipal level have built and currently maintain many of the stadiums that the NFL utilizes. Most teams pay only a modest rent, and some, like the New Orleans Saints, pay no rent at all. Yet, all ticket sales, concessions and parking revenue goes to the team owners. Additionally, the teams are not required to pay sales tax on those revenues in most states. A study by the Times-Picayune in 2016 reported the New Orleans Saints’ receives yearly around $165 million, from the taxpayers of Louisiana.

How much do you pay your NFL team? Wouldn’t that make the staff and players of the NFL government employees? During the past 20 years, American taxpayers have spent more than $7 billion to build or renovate NFL stadiums, covering 46 percent of the total costs of those projects.

While the taxpayers unknowingly or foolishly subsidized the creation and operation of the NFL’s “product,” hoping for a few minimum wage jobs in their town, the NFL made, in a single year, over $7 billion in broadcasting rights alone, and no taxpayer received a single NFL tax credit.

Why should state and local governments use our money to fund this multi-billion dollar industry?

Perhaps we should have this discussion with our state and municipal representatives and demand they stop using our tax dollars to give handouts this billion dollar NFL industry.

(Editor’s Note: Photo shows Dallas Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones kneeling with players during the National Anthem. Jones’ net worth is $5.6 billion and the value of the Cowboys is $4.2 billion. The new Cowboy’s stadium, now-AT&T Stadium, was the first billion-dollar football stadium in the United States. It received $444 million from taxpayers.)

KrisAnne Hall is a former biochemist, Russian linguist for the US Army, and former prosecutor for the State of Florida. KrisAnne also practiced First Amendment Law for a prominent Florida non-profit Law firm. KrisAnne now travels the country teaching the foundational principles of Liberty and our Constitutional Republic. KrisAnne is the author of 6 books on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, she also has an internationally popular radio and television show and her books and classes have been featured on C-SPAN TV. KrisAnne can be found at www.KrisAnneHall.com